After double Taser shots in 2010 incident, Winsted man with multiple probation volations has case continued

BANTAM -- A Winsted man accused of violating the terms of his release, doing so on the same day that the terms were relaxed, had his case transferred to Litchfield Superior Court on Monday.

John Filippi, 40, was charged with violating the conditions of his release. Filippi is scheduled to appear in Litchfield Superior Court on May 1, is being held on $40,000 cash or surety bond, and is also subject to a full no-contact order.

Filippi is currently embroiled in another case stemming from a January domestic disturbance. In this case, Filippi was charged with two counts of second-degree threatening and one count each of risk of injury to a minor, third-degree assault and disorderly conduct. The case, is currently pending in Litchfield Superior Court, where Filippi is also charged with his third probation violation. Both cases are scheduled to resume on May 18.

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The original conditions of Filippi's release on the domestic disturbance case included a full no-contact order, but that order was revised on April 25. Filippi was ordered to surrender his firearms and was allowed to contact the accuser over the phone.

However, later that day, police responded to a complaint at the accuser's Upson Street home, allegedly discovering Filippi in her home, only wearing boxer shorts. Filippi's accuser had allegedly lied to police, saying he was not there.

Filippi is currently on probation after a 2003 arrest for narcotics possession and interfering with an officer. The Winsted resident pled guilty to the charges in February 2004, and was sentenced to seven years in jail on the narcotics possession charge, suspended after two years, followed by five years of probation. Filippi was also sentenced to a year in jail, which was suspended, and three years of probation on the charge of interfering with an officer.

However, Filippi has violated his probation twice, and faces a charge of violating it a third time. The first violation occurred in 2008, and after pleading guilty in July 2008, Filippi was sentenced to six years in jail, suspended after 18 months, and five years of probation.

Filippi violated his probation once again after an August 2010 domestic incident. Officer Kevin Sultaire of the Torrington Police Department used a Taser on Filippi during the incident, citing Filippi's size and mental state during the incident.

"Filippi was verbally threatening and had a tremendous size advantage on the officer," said Torrington Police Department Lieutenant Bruce Whitely. "He threatened the officer and challenged him to a fight."

Whitely said the Taser's usage was "acceptable deployment," and the report said that Filippi became "compliant" and "very apologetic" after Sultaire deployed the Taser twice. Filippi pled guilty to interfering with an officer and was sentenced to nine months in prison, to be served concurrently with his sentence for violating his probation the second time.